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Dryland salinity in Australia impacts landholders, consumers and communities due to loss of production and loss of natural environments, costing more than $270 million and affecting more than 2.5 million hectares of farming land.

In 2020, the Meningie East Field Healthy Soils Group, supported by the Coorong Tatiara Landcare Assistance Program, received the inaugural $40,000 nbn™ Sustainable Agriculture Landcare Grant. Focusing on providing technology-driven tools to landholders, farmers and advisors in South Australia’s Upper Southeast region, to support decisions around the managing of salinity impacted landscapes, another project goal was to help avoid salinity issues in threatened areas.

The research aimed to determine the causes or patterns relating to ‘transient’ salinity and the environmental or seasonal data which indicates or forecasts dryland salinity processes. Initial findings from interpreting the soil probe data showed that there are two different soil salinity processes occurring across the region, often in close proximity.

A total of 20 stakeholders were involved in the project from the beginning to the end (and engaged with 65 participants in total) – representing 32,170ha of land under management. The majority of those involved were farmers with the remainder being agronomists, consultants or government extension officers who are responsible for sharing information with farmers.

Meningie East Field Healthy Soils Group
#Salinity